Former Test batsman Graham Thorpe said he is happy to sit on the fence
during the upcoming Ashes cricket series as he watches his former
England team mates take on Australia.

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Thorpe has taken up a two-year contract as the New South Wales batting
coach but since Andrew Flintoff's tourists arrived here, journalists
have sought his opinion on the England side for which he played 100
Tests.
England step up their Ashes preparations with a three-day match against
NSW at the Sydney Cricket Ground, starting Sunday.
"I guess it will be a bit strange," Thorpe told The Sydney Morning
Herald Saturday of coaching against England. "I know people will be
interested to know who I want to win, but I just want it to be a good
game of cricket. I realize that that sounds like fence sitting, but
that's how I feel. It's completely different now - you spend so much of
your life boxing away in one corner, and now you're on the other side."

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This weekend Thorpe, 37, will be sitting alongside Glenn McGrath, Brett
Lee, Michael Clarke and Simon Katich in the SCG Members' Pavilion.
Thorpe, who underwent a highly publicized marriage break-up and bouts
of depression which forced him from England's previous tour of
Australia, can empathize with England opener Marcus Trecothick.
Trescothick withdrew from England's Champions Trophy squad because of a
stress-related illness. He claimed this week he was prepared for the
Australians to sledge him about his condition.
"There is going to be plenty of rib-tickling out there for sure when he
gets out there to play but if he is in the same sort of form he was
last time they met he will be fine," Thorpe said. "I think he has more
on his plate from everything that has gone on and that goes hand in
hand with the job. The moment you say, 'I am struggling to concentrate
because of 'X' the way the media is you are going to throw more
pressure on yourself and he has to be able to deal with it."
In Thorpe and Troy Cooley, Cricket Australia could feasibly compile
quite the dossier on England's batsmen and bowlers after both recently
left prominent positions in Duncan Fletcher's England squad.
Thorpe says he has not yet been approached to divulge information prior
to the Ashes, and is concentrating on his role with NSW.
"I think it will take me a while to earn the kind of reputation in
Australian coaching where they would be using me like that," Thorpe
said. "I am very much looking forward to the Ashes. Last year's series
was an incredible contest. I think Australia have an advantage in how
far they bat down the order. But please don't ask me who will win
this week."